Moira and Nathan (and GW and Dom), Saturday afternoon

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

Ignorant of what's going on thanks to some very determined shielding on Nathan's part, Moira is alerted by Bridge. After being helped back upstairs to her severely distraught husband, she focuses on reassuring him, but may or may not also be considering getting one of her hunting rifles and tracking down her father-in-law.


Pouring herself a drink of juice, Moira rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand. She'd only been awake for about half an hour or so, Domino had thankfully been more than pleased to play the role of babysitter for her nap and a trip downstairs to get something to eat and drink. Where's Nathan? she wondered, glancing at the clock in the kitchen. Maybe the lunch ran late, or something.

At least Dom had known precisely where Moira was going, so he didn't have to go looking. Although Nate had to be shielding that link of theirs like no one's business, if Moira still hadn't picked up on what was happening, GW thought, hurrying towards the kitchen door.

"Moira," he said, his voice low but urgent as he found her in the kitchen.

Shrieking a little bit, Moira turned and clutched her heart. "GW! Wha'...ye werenae supposed ta be 'ere today!" Stopped, she stared at him and put down her glass. "Wha's wron'?"

"It's Nate. He's upstairs." GW came over and took her arm, leading her back in the direction he'd come. He was starting to have more and more trouble controlling his anger at this point, although he reminded himself that he had to. Telepathic baby. "He's not hurt badly, but he needs you. I took him to the medlab first, Madelyn finished my patching-up job."

Not hurt badly bounced around in her head for a second, as she squared her jaw. Something had to have happened during that lunch with his father. "Since we're goin' this way, ye've taken 'im back ta th' rooms?" Moira asked, resisting the urge to run all the way up there. She still wasn't strong enough to take those stairs as fast as she wanted to. "GW, wha' 'appened?"

"Succinctly? His father needs a bullet in his head, and his uncle, possibly a couple." GW's jaw clenched at the look Moira gave him. "Gideon. That bastard from Chad. He's Nathan's uncle."

"What?!" Moira turned abruptly, stopping them in their tracks. "He's his what?"

"Uncle. Saul's brother." GW took her arm again. Forward motion was good. "Who had something to do with him winding up at Mistra."

This time she allowed just her head to snap around. "Saul an' Gideon are tied ta Mistra?" she hissed.

"Somehow. Nate's not all that coherent." GW swallowed. "There's stuff he couldn't bring himself to tell me, I can see it in his eyes, but he's shocky. Threw himself out a forty-seventh story window to get away from them, he said."

"Nathan did...oh for th' love o' God."

"It's okay. He's all right. Just a little cut up from the glass. He's made bigger TK-assisted jumps before when he had to," GW reassured her, patting her arm as he helped her up the stairs as much as possible.

"I'm sure he has, doesnae make me feel any better," she said dryly. Sighing, she muttered some more. "We should 'ave taken th' bloody elevator. Would 'ave gone faster at this rate."

GW blinked at her, and then bit his lip. "Watch me do something horrible to my back," he muttered, and then scooped her up in his arms, climbing the stairs a fair bit faster.

Moira bit down on the instinctive scream and flailing about and settled on clutching GW around the shoulders. Hard. Taking a second to swat him on the shoulder, she snickered. "Warn me next time, aye?"

"At least you're better about it than Lien. Last time I tried to do this with her she bit me." But this got Moira up to the third floor faster, which was good. He carried her right to the door of the suite and only then set her down.

It was open, and Domino was standing in the middle of the living room, looking rather bewildered. "Rachel's in the nursery. Madelyn's in there with her; she was fussing. Nate just went and locked himself in the bathroom. What is going on?" Some of the bewilderment slipped into anger. "And who did what to Nathan?"

Regaining her balance, Moira walked by, patting Domino on the arm as she went. "Let me see wha' I can do." Through the bedroom and towards the bathroom, trying to calm her nerves and her anger about what had happened. Knocking on the door, she leaned against it. "Love? Can I come in?"

Nathan had been throwing up what little was in his stomach for the last few minutes. Not that there was much. He hadn't actually eaten any of the lunch, after all. He heard Moira's voice and tried to move, but he couldn't make his muscles obey. He sat there, shaking, trying to move, and couldn't.

"Nathan?" Reaching down, she tried to open the door, just in case. But it was still locked and it was obvious from the sounds that Nathan was unable to physically get the door and too out of it to use his TK. Besides, in his frame of mind, he might rip the door from the hinges. Turning around, she headed to one of the small boxes on the nightstand. Not commenting to Domino and Bridge as they watched, she dumped the contents and quickly found what she was looking for.

Once back over to the door, Moira straightened out the hair pin and, well, started to pick the lock. Kevin, around five, when he had his good days had decided that it was a wonderful game to play "Lock Oneself in the Loo!" and she had quickly figured out that these kinds of locks didn't hold up to a determined Scotswoman with a hair pin.

The door opened and she was suddenly there, not just the presence on the end of the link he was trying to shelter, but there, concern written all over her face, and he flinched, wanting to crumble but telling himself that he couldn't. "C-Can't upset the baby," he whispered, wiping his mouth with a hand that was shaking so hard he had trouble lifting it.

Not going to him, not yet, she paused long enough to grab a washcloth and wet it with some warm water. "Rachel's fine," she murmured, dropping next to him and gently washing his face, despite another flinch. "She's in th' nursery, love, nothin' will affect 'er in there."

"You were all right," Nathan muttered numbly, his eyes unfocusing again. "You were all right, you told me..." Why hadn't he listened? Why had he been so stupid, why had he...

"Shh, honey, nay, stop tha'." Dropping the washcloth, Moira leaned up and wrapped her arms around him. "None o' this is yer fault, none o' it."

"It's worse..." His voice broke, and he clung to her, ignoring the way the cuts on his arms protested the movement. "It's worse than I remember... worse than I ever knew." He was gasping the words out at that point, not understanding why it was so hard to catch his breath.

#Breathe, Nathan!# Moira sent, pushing the thoughts and love and warmth down the link, knowing he would get them even if he was still shielding. "Shh, shhh, 'tis goin' ta be okay."

The shield on the link was slipping. He let it, let her see the conversation with Saul, Gideon sitting down at the table... everything they had said after that. "I don't know what to do." It came out almost as a whimper. "I don't know what to d-do..."

She shuddered, she couldn't help it, as the flashes of images and conversation poured into her head. Pulling back slightly, Moira cupped his face gently in her hands. "Nathan, look at me. It. Will. Be. All. Right." Down deep in her mind, away from the link, she seethed and fumed, but she kept her thoughts near the link calm and soothing.

GW appeared in the doorway. "Why don't we get him up out of here and somewhere more comfortable?" he asked quietly. Dom was hovering behind him, violet eyes wide and worried.

"I can g-get up," Nathan said, and tried - only to find out that his legs were continuing to not work. Great. Just great. He sucked in a shaky breath, a thread of embarassment penetrating the shock. "I don't know what's w-wrong with me..."

GW shook his head. "It's all right," he said softly, and between him and Domino, they managed to get Nathan on his feet and into the bedroom, letting Moira follow at her own pace.

She followed slowly, rubbing her hand since she had just ended up punching the wall before leaving the bathroom, and settled herself on the bed next to where they had put Nathan. Reaching over, Moira took his hand in hers and held it gently.

Nathan was staring up at the ceiling, breathing a bit heavily, but something more than just blank shock and sadness surfacing in his expression now. "I can't think," he said unevenly. "Can't sort out what it all means. There are places my mind's going... I don't want it to go there." His gaze shifted to Moira, almost imploring. "Tell me it doesn't matter," he said weakly. "Tell me it doesn't change me..."

GW bit his lip, worried. The change from what Nathan had been saying down in the medlab, where what he was now begging to be reassured about had been what he was clinging to, scared him. "You know it doesn't."

Leaning foward, Moira pressed her head to his chest, feeling his heart beat against her cheek. Faster than normal, but steady. "GW's right," she murmured, low and soft. "Yer still ye, an' tha's all tha' matters. This is...bad, Nathan, I cannae lie about tha'. But ye've gotten through so much an' if ye 'ad never known this, never met them, ye wouldnae be any different than who ye are now. Still th' man I loved an' married."

Focus, Nathan tried to tell himself. Focus. "I don't want to fall apart," he whispered, his eyes burning. "Don't want to give them that much power over me... but what they did, Moira, what he did..." The memory of Gideon's calm expression as he told him about his role in Aliya and Tyler's death hit him like a sledgehammer, and tears trickled silently down his face as he fought for control.

That particular image slipped down the link and Moira resisted jerking back in surprise. Bile formed at the back of her throat and she forced it down, forced herself to breathe along with Nathan. "Lettin' go willnae give them any power over ye," she said fiercely. "They dinnae own ye, nay one does. Ye are yer own man, Nathan, an' nothin' can change tha'."

GW started to turn away, to take Dom's arm, but Nathan suddenly jerked up a little from the pillows, just for a moment, as if someone had flipped his switch back to alert and coherent. "Get the Pack out of the hotel," he said hoarsely. "Just in case."

GW nodded. "I'll go call them," he said quietly, and led Domino out of the room, closing the door behind them.

Nathan relaxed back into the pillows, Moira settling herself against him again. He blinked rapidly, trying to will the tears to stop. They wouldn't.

"I don't know... how I sat there and listened to them for as long as I did," he said very softly. "It was like... watching a train crash. I had to see. I had to know..." His voice wobbled and his jaw clenched.

"I know, sweetie, I would 'ave done th' same." Nuzzling closer, she allowed herself a small smile. #Well, without th' jumpin' out th' window thing.#

He gave a tiny, broken laugh. "He had my powers again. Gideon. And that whole restaurant full of people..." Getting out of range had seemed like the only thing to do, and doing it as quickly as possible...

There was another thought there on the link, floating beneath the others, but she managed to root it out because it echoed a thought of hers. "Rachel is goin' ta be fine," she soothed suddenly, clinging to him tightly. "She's safe, Nathan, an' will be safe, I promise."

"We have to be careful," he said disjointedly. "I have to... tell Charles. And the team leaders, and Remy..." But he couldn't think, Nathan thought despairingly.

"We will be an' they will know." Moira paused and her eyes fluttered closed, reaching mentally out in a different direction, catching the attention of Charles. "Charles knows somethin' is up but is willin' ta wait until everythin' is calmer," she told him. "Rachel's safe an' bein' watched over. Jus'...rest, okay?" Nathan turned and buried his head in her shoulder, and she wrapped her arms tightly against him. "It'll be okay."